Civic body backtracks on strike statement

Darjeeling, Feb. 19: The GNLF-controlled Darjeeling Municipality board today retracted its statement and said the indefinite closure announced by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha had prevented the civic body from clearing garbage and supplying drinking water to the town.

“There seems to have been some communication gap. The civic body is not being able to clear garbage or supply water because of the Morcha strike. Conservancy and water services have not been kept out of the shutdown’s purview,” said Pema Yolmo, the recently elected chairman of the municipality.

Yesterday, however, Yolmo had said the municipality would, as part of “its indefinite strike”, stop supplying drinking water. “We want to tell people that we, too, will resort to an indefinite strike and will refrain from clearing the garbage or supplying water if the hawkers refuse to pay taxes,” the civic chief had said.

The municipality had set three conditions — the hawkers of Chowkbazar should start paying the daily tax of Rs 10, the Morcha flag should be removed from the municipality building and that Bimal Gurung’s party should pay for the damage incurred on Saturday — for renewing the services. The Morcha had laid siege to the municipality building on February 16 to stall the election of the chairperson.

While garbage has been left uncollected across the town for the past two days, the possibility is that there will not be much change in the coming days as the GNLF and the Morcha gear up to take each other on.

Binay Tamang, the spokesperson for the Morcha, claimed that all essential services have been left out of the shutdown’s purview.

“The conservancy staff of the municipality are our supporters and there is no question of threatening them. Moreover, in all our strikes, essential services are always exempted,” he said.

The Morcha also added that it would wait for another couple of days and if the municipality fails to act within that period, it would organise volunteers who would render the services of the civic body.

“We have already decided to organise volunteers from every ward of the municipality. We will ensure that water is supplied and the garbage cleared,” said Tamang.